第77章

"Now thou must needs either consent to our entreaties, or meet in battle us who entreat thee.We would rather die nobly than go back with our mission unperformed; lest, foully repulsed and foiled of our purpose, we should take home disgrace where we hoped to will honour.If thou refuse thy daughter, consent to fight: thou must needs grant one thing or the other.We wish either to die or to have our prayers beard.Something -- sorrow if not joy -- we will get from thee.Frode will be better pleased to hear of our slaughter than of our repulse." Without another word, he threatened to aim a blow at the king's throat with his sword.The king replied that it was unseemly for the royal majesty to meet an inferior in rank in level combat, and unfit that those of unequal station should fight as equals.But when Westmar persisted in urging him to fight, he at last bade him find out what the real mind of the maiden was; for in old time men gave women who were to marry, free choice of a husband.

For the king was embarrassed, and hung vacillating betwixt shame and fear of battle.Thus Westmar, having been referred to the thoughts of the girl's heart, and knowing that every woman is as changeable in purpose as she is fickle in soul, proceeded to fulfil his task all the more confidently because he knew how mutable the wishes of maidens were.His confidence in his charge was increased and his zeal encouraged, because she had both a maiden's simplicity, which was left to its own counsels, and a woman's freedom of choice, which must be wheedled with the most delicate and mollifying flatteries; and thus she would be not only easy to lead away, but even hasty in compliance.But her father went after the envoys, that he might see more surely into his daughter's mind.She had already been drawn by the stealthy working of the draught to love her suitor, and answered that the promise of Frode, rather than his present renown, had made her expect much of his nature: since he was sprung from so famous a father, and every nature commonly answered to its origin.The youth therefore had pleased her by her regard of his future, rather than his present, glory.These words amazed the father;but neither could he bear to revoke the freedom he had granted her, and he promised her in marriage to Frode.Then, having laid in ample stores, he took her away with the most splendid pomp, and, followed by the envoys, hastened to Denmark, knowing that a father was the best person to give away a daughter in marriage.

Frode welcomed his bride most joyfully, and also bestowed the highest honours upon his future royal father-in-law; and when the marriage rites were over, dismissed him with a large gift of gold and silver.

And so with Hanund, the daughter of the King of the Huns, for his wife, he passed three years in the most prosperous peace.But idleness brought wantonness among his courtiers, and peace begot lewdness, which they displayed in the most abominable crimes.

For they would draw some men up in the air on ropes, and torment them, pushing their bodies as they hung, like a ball that is tossed; or they would put a kid's hide under the feet of others as they walked, and, by stealthily pulling a rope, trip their unwary steps on the slippery skill in their path; others they would strip of their clothes, and lash with sundry tortures of stripes; others they fastened to pegs, as with a noose, and punished with mock-hanging.They scorched off the beard and hair with tapers; of others they burned the hair of the groin with a brand.Only those maidens might marry whose chastity they had first deflowered.Strangers they battered with bones; others they compelled to drunkenness with immoderate draughts, and made them burst.No man might give his daughter to wife unless he had first bought their favour and goodwill.None might contract any marriage without first purchasing their consent with a bribe.

Moreover, they extended their abominable and abandoned lust not only to virgins, but to the multitude of matrons indiscriminately.Thus a twofold madness incited this mixture of wantonness and frenzy.Guests and strangers were proffered not shelter but revilings.All these maddening mockeries did this insolent and wanton crew devise, and thus under a boy-king freedom fostered licence.For nothing prolongs reckless sin like the procrastination of punishment and vengeance.This unbridled impudence of the soldiers ended by making the king detested, not only by foreigners, but even by his own people, for the Danes resented such an arrogant and cruel rule.But Grep was contented with no humble loves; he broke out so outrageously that he was guilty of intercourse with the queen, and proved as false to the king as he was violent to all other men.Then by degrees the scandal grew, and the suspicion of his guilt crept on with silent step.The common people found it out before the king.For Grep, by always punishing all who alluded in the least to this circumstance, had made it dangerous to accuse him.But the rumour of his crime, which at first was kept alive in whispers, was next passed on in public reports; for it is hard for men to hide another's guilt if they are aware of it.Gunwar had many suitors; and accordingly Grep, trying to take revenge for his rebuff by stealthy wiles, demanded the right of judging the suitors, declaring that the princess ought to make the choicest match.But he disguised his anger, lest he should seem to have sought the office from hatred of the maiden.At his request the king granted him leave to examine the merits of the young men.